Lavrov regrets European Parliament debates support to Magnitsky law

"I do not think that European countries have the legal possibility to join the law named after Sergei Magnitsky," Lavrov said

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MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) —— Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov regretted that the European Parliament is debating support for the Magnitsky law.

“I do not think that European countries have the legal possibility to join the law named after Sergei Magnitsky,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Euronews television channel on Thursday, December 20.

“I have heard that the European Parliament is debating the possibility of copying, rubber-stamping the document adopted at the Capitol Hill and making it its own decision,” the minister said.

“If the desire to copy it from the ‘elder brother’ prevails, it will be regrettable because such a turn will add nothing to bringing us closer to the resolution of questions that worry Europeans with regard to Russia and Russian citizens with regard to Europeans,” Lavrov said.

“We are engaged in the human rights dialogue within which we tell each other, as partners do, what we would like to change in our relations and what we would like to see in our countries in terms of respect for and honouring of human rights and basic freedoms of our citizens. This is a correct format and we need to continue to use it further,” he said.

“Russia maintains dialogue on human rights with both the EU and the U.S. -- within the framework of the Presidential Commission with the Americans there is the working group on civil society. For this dialogue to be transparent, the State Duma has organised hearings, with the participation of the Foreign Ministry, on human rights problems in the EU and the U.S,” Lavrov said.

“The results of the hearings on the EU were summarised in the relevant report which was circulated in EU countries on the eve of the Russia-EU summit. It is not provocative but is based on facts. Our interlocutors in Brussels and other European capitals admitted after reading it that the document is based on concrete data and convincingly shows our mutual interest to solve issues that complicate the life of people in the vast Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian areas,” Lavrov said.